Yakov Strizhak, bass

With his commanding figure and impressive yet still deeply touching voice, Yakov Strizhak is one of the most promising young Israeli-Russian basses of our time. First prize winner of the 2008 International Musical Competition “S. Rachmaninoff” and of the 2010 International Competition “St.Petersburg Spring”, this graduate of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory has already sung under the baton of Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Andrey Petrenko, to name a few. Before becoming a member of the opera studio at the New Israeli Opera Theatre in 2013 and subsequently of the opera studio at the Komische Oper Berlin, Yakov was a soloist at the Opera and Ballet Theater Rimsky-Korsakov in St.Petersburg. His repertoire includes roles such as King René in Iolanthe, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Colline in La Bohème, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and the title role of Don Pasquale. He recently appeared as Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin at the Komische Oper Berlin.